Landing page search results

ABSTRACT

Systems and methods for providing content are disclosed. In an embodiment, information encoding at least one keyword that is associated with first content accessed by a user is received. A search query based at least in part on at least one keyword is executed to identify items. In response to a request from the user to access second content, a response is generated to the request that includes item information associated with at least a subset of the identified items. The response is provided to the user.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This application is a continuation of allowed U.S. patent applicationSer. No. 12/645,178, filed Dec. 22, 2009, which is hereby incorporatedherein by reference for all purposes.

BACKGROUND

Search engines are powerful tools for locating information in a varietyof contexts. For instance, a consumer seeking to purchase a particularproduct may enter one or more words, also known as keywords, describingthe product, into an interface of a search engine in order to locateinformation about the product and/or purchase the product. The searchengine may then provide the consumer with search results determined,based at least in part on the keywords entered, to be relevant and theconsumer may search through the search results in order to locate whatthe consumer was looking for. The search results are provided to theconsumer in a list or similar format, with each result displaying someamount of information. If the consumer finds a search result thatappears to be relevant to what he or she was looking for, the consumermay select the result in order to navigate to a landing page to receivemore information and/or perform other actions, such as purchasing aproduct offered at the landing page.

While search engines employ various methods for increasing the relevanceof search results provided to people searching, the information soughtby a searcher is often not presented prominently and sometimes notpresented at all. This may be due to various reasons. If a search queryentered by a consumer is too broad, there may be many results that matchthe query. For instance, if a consumer desires to purchase a particularmodel of digital camera and enters the name of the manufacturer's nameand “digital camera” as a search query to a search engine, the searchengine may not prominently display any results related to the particularmodel sought if the manufacturer produces numerous models. Other factorsinfluencing whether relevant results are presented to a consumer are thequality of any algorithms used by the search engine, the time theinformation sought became available, the number of pages with similarinformation, and the like.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Various embodiments in accordance with the present disclosure will bedescribed with reference to the drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 illustrates an environment in which various embodiments can beimplemented;

FIG. 2 illustrates components for generating keyword-landing page pairsand synchronizing those pairs with a separate provider that can be usedin accordance with one embodiment;

FIG. 3 illustrates components for generating and selectingkeyword-landing page pairs that can be used in accordance with oneembodiment;

FIG. 4A shows an illustrative example of a search engine interface inaccordance with an embodiment;

FIG. 4B shows an illustrative example of a landing page for a searchresult shown on FIG. 4A in accordance with an embodiment;

FIG. 5 shows steps of a method for providing contents in accordance withan embodiment;

FIG. 6 shows steps of a method for determining contents in accordancewith an embodiment;

FIG. 7 shows steps of a method for selecting contents in accordance withan embodiment.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

Systems and methods in accordance with various embodiments of thepresent disclosure may overcome one or more the aforementioned and otherdeficiencies experienced in providing information sought by users, suchas consumers viewing information provided via an electronic marketplace.In particular, systems and methods in accordance with variousembodiments provide an automated approach to providing relevantinformation to consumers. In an example where a consumer enters a searchquery into a search engine, search results additional to those providedby the search engine may be provided on a landing page of one or more ofthe search results provided by the search engine. In variousembodiments, when the consumer selects search results in order tonavigate to a corresponding landing page, the search query entered bythe consumer is entered as a search query to another search engine andone or more search results provided by the other search engine areincluded in the landing page. The other search engine may be a searchengine operable to provide results dedicated or substantially dedicatedto providing items that may be consumed by the consumer. For instance,the other search engine may provide search results related to productsthat may be purchased by consumers in an electronic environment, such asthrough a web page. Generally, the search engine may be dedicated to anyitems that may be consumed, which may include consumer products that maybe purchased, leased, or rented, services that may be ordered, digitalcontent that may be viewed and/or downloaded, and the like. The itemsfor consumption may be consumed by consumers in exchange forconsideration, such as money or other value, or may be provided free ofcharge.

In various embodiments, one or more methods for selecting search resultsto be included in a landing page may be used. For example, variousinformation may be used in order to filter results that should not beshown on the landing page. As an example, if the landing page isprimarily directed to a particular item, any search resultscorresponding to that item may be excluded from being included on thelanding page in order to avoid redundancy. As another example, itemsthat are not available for consumption, perhaps due to the item notbeing in inventory or otherwise not being available, may be excluded inorder to avoid consumer frustration by appearing to offer items that arenot available and to dedicate more space of the landing page to itemsthat are available for consumption.

As yet another example, methods may be employed in order to selectsearch results to display on a landing page that are most likely toresult in the consumer consuming relevant items. For instance, variousinformation may be used in order to rank potential search results andselect the highest ranked results for inclusion on the landing page. Inan embodiment, for search results associated with items for consumption,the popularity of the items among consumers in general or amongconsumers sharing one or more attributes may be used to rank potentialsearch results. In addition, browsing history of a consumer may be usedin order to select or exclude certain results for inclusion on thelanding page, such as items the consumer looked at, items the consumerplaced in an electronic shopping cart but did not ultimately consume,and the like.

FIG. 1 illustrates an example of an environment 100 for implementingaspects in accordance with various embodiments. As will be appreciated,although a Web-based environment is used for purposes of explanation,different environments may be used, as appropriate, to implement variousembodiments. The environment 100 shown includes both a testing ordevelopment portion (or side) and a production portion. The productionportion includes an electronic client device 102, which can include anyappropriate device operable to send and receive requests, messages, orinformation over an appropriate network 104 and convey information backto a user of the device. Examples of such client devices includepersonal computers, cell phones, handheld messaging devices, laptopcomputers, set-top boxes, personal data assistants, electronic bookreaders, and the like. The network can include any appropriate network,including an intranet, the Internet, a cellular network, a local areanetwork, or any other such network or combination thereof. Componentsused for such a system can depend at least in part upon the type ofnetwork and/or environment selected. Protocols and components forcommunicating via such a network are well known and will not bediscussed herein in detail. Communication over the network can beenabled by wired or wireless connections, and combinations thereof. Inthis example, the network includes the Internet, as the environmentincludes a Web server 106 for receiving requests and serving content inresponse thereto, although for other networks an alternative deviceserving a similar purpose could be used as would be apparent to one ofordinary skill in the art.

The illustrative environment includes at least one application server108 and a data store 110. It should be understood that there can beseveral application servers, layers, or other elements, processes, orcomponents, which may be chained or otherwise configured, which caninteract to perform tasks such as obtaining data from an appropriatedata store. As used herein the term “data store” refers to any device orcombination of devices capable of storing, accessing, and retrievingdata, which may include any combination and number of data servers,databases, data storage devices, and data storage media, in anystandard, distributed, or clustered environment. The application servercan include any appropriate hardware and software for integrating withthe data store as needed to execute aspects of one or more applicationsfor the client device, handling a majority of the data access andbusiness logic for an application. The application server providesaccess control services in cooperation with the data store, and is ableto generate content such as text, graphics, audio, and/or video to betransferred to the user, which may be served to the user by the Webserver in the form of HTML, XML, or another appropriate structuredlanguage in this example. The handling of all requests and responses, aswell as the delivery of content between the client device 102 and theapplication server 108, can be handled by the Web server. It should beunderstood that the Web and application servers are not required and aremerely example components, as structured code discussed herein can beexecuted on any appropriate device or host machine as discussedelsewhere herein. Further, the environment can be architected in such away that a test automation framework can be provided as a service towhich a user or application can subscribe. A test automation frameworkcan be provided as an implementation of any of the various testingpatterns discussed herein, although various other implementations can beused as well, as discussed or suggested herein.

The environment also includes a development and/or testing side, whichincludes a user device 118 allowing a user such as a developer, dataadministrator, or tester to access the system. The user device 118 canbe any appropriate device or machine, such as is described above withrespect to the client device 102. The environment also includes adevelopment server 120, which functions similar to the applicationserver 108 but typically runs code during development and testing beforethe code is deployed and executed on the production side and isaccessible to outside users, for example. In some embodiments, anapplication server can function as a development server, and separateproduction and testing storage may not be used.

The data store 110 can include several separate data tables, databases,or other data storage mechanisms and media for storing data relating toa particular aspect. For example, the data store illustrated includesmechanisms for storing production data 112 and user information 116,which can be used to serve content for the production side. The datastore also is shown to include a mechanism for storing testing data 114,which can be used with the user information for the testing side. Itshould be understood that there can be many other aspects that may needto be stored in the data store, such as for page image information andaccess right information, which can be stored in any of the above listedmechanisms as appropriate or in additional mechanisms in the data store110. The data store 110 is operable, through logic associated therewith,to receive instructions from the application server 108 or developmentserver 120, and obtain, update, or otherwise process data in responsethereto. In one example, a user might submit a search request for acertain type of item. In this case, the data store might access the userinformation to verify the identity of the user, and can access thecatalog detail information to obtain information about items of thattype. The information then can be returned to the user, such as in aresults listing on a Web page that the user is able to view via abrowser on the user device 102. Information for a particular item ofinterest can be viewed in a dedicated page or window of the browser.

Each server typically will include an operating system that providesexecutable program instructions for the general administration andoperation of that server, and typically will include a computer-readablemedium storing instructions that, when executed by a processor of theserver, allow the server to perform its intended functions. Suitableimplementations for the operating system and general functionality ofthe servers are known or commercially available, and are readilyimplemented by persons having ordinary skill in the art, particularly inlight of the disclosure herein.

The environment in one embodiment is a distributed computing environmentutilizing several computer systems and components that areinterconnected via communication links, using one or more computernetworks or direct connections. However, it will be appreciated by thoseof ordinary skill in the art that such a system could operate equallywell in a system having fewer or a greater number of components than areillustrated in FIG. 1. Thus, the depiction of the system 100 in FIG. 1should be taken as being illustrative in nature, and not limiting to thescope of the disclosure.

An environment such as that illustrated in FIG. 1 can be useful for aprovider, such as an electronic marketplace, wherein the provider wishesto provide relevant information to consumers, such as informationrelating to products the user may purchase through the electronicmarketplace. As discussed above, however, sometimes a provider such asan electronic marketplace might wish to advertise on other sites or withother providers. The electronic environment in such a case might includeadditional components and/or other arrangements, such as thoseillustrated in the configuration 200 of FIG. 2. In this example,components for an advertising entity 202 can generate advertisingassociations such as keyword-landing page pairs to be submitted tocomponents for another provider 204, where a keyword-landing page pairmay be a pair consisting of a keyword or combination of keywords with alanding page. It should be understood that while keyword-landing pagepairs are used for purposes of explanation, any association of anavigational process with content in an electronic environment can beused with, and benefit from, selections and other processes describedwith respect to various embodiments.

In this example, the advertising entity generates and serves pages ofcontent available to any appropriate end user 206, and thus can includecomponents such as a production data store 208 that can be used by apage generator 210 to generate pages that can be served by a page server212 (such as a Web server in a Web-based environment) over a network 214to the end user 206. Similarly, any other appropriate provider 204 caninclude page generator and page server components for generating andserving pages of content to a user. While many of the embodiments aredescribed with respect to a Web-based environment, it should beunderstood that pages are not limited to Web pages, but can include anyapplication page or other interface page that can be displayed orotherwise conveyed to a user.

If the advertising entity 202 wishes to advertise with the provider 204using sponsored links or other advertisements that direct a user back toa page provided by the advertising entity, then the advertising entityalso can include components for determining the landing pages to beassociated with the advertisements. While the advertising components inthis example are shown to be part of the advertiser's system, it shouldbe understood that these components can be part of a separate system orprovided as a third party service, for example. In this example, theadvertising entity system includes an advertising manager 212, which asdiscussed elsewhere herein can encompass, monitor, and/or control anumber of different algorithms and components for selecting and decidingupon landing pages. When the advertising manager 212 decides on alanding page to be associated with content on the provider pages, theadvertising manager 212 can store the advertising data to an advertisingdata store 214, which in some embodiments can comprise separate tablesin the production data store 208. The advertising entity's system alsocan include a synchronization manager 216 that can work with asynchronization component of the provider 204 to periodicallysynchronize the advertising data with the advertising data stored at theprovider 204, such that the appropriate landing pages can be designatedand updated as desired. When a user 206 views a page of content servedby the provider 204, the page can include an advertisement that willdirect the user to a page of the advertising entity 202 upon selectionby the user. In addition, the provider 204 may provide the advertisingentity 202 with information relating to the page of content, such as allor a portion of the content, a search query submitted by the user 206,information relating to one or more items for consumption associatedwith the page of content, a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) or otheridentifier of a location of the page of content, and/or otherinformation relevant to the page of content. The page generator 210 ofthe advertising entity 202 may then use that information in order togenerate a page for the user that includes content in accordance withvarious embodiments of the present disclosure.

As discussed above, the advertisement can include at least one sponsoredlink, such as a hypertext link displayed on a Web page, for example.Sponsored links also can be displayed on any appropriate interfacecapable of following a link or similar navigational element to anothersource of information, and as such the term “link” will be used forpurposes of explanation but should not be interpreted as limiting thetypes of navigational elements that can be used with variousembodiments.

As discussed, sponsored links in one example are displayed when a usersearches for information in a search engine, and receives a list ofsearch results (referred to herein as a “results page”). There are manyaspects to deciding which links are displayed on a results page. Forexample, advertisers would like to display ads that are relevant to thecontent of the search results, which might be of interest to the user.For example, a user searching for information on automobiles can, onaverage, be more likely to purchase a book on automotive repair than aset of steak knives. Thus, the advertiser would prefer to spend theadvertising money with respect to those keywords or categories which are“relevant” to the item (e.g., any product or service that can beconsumed) being advertised. Further, a category can have manysubcategories, and an advertiser might not decide that the advertiserwants to spend money to advertise for an “automotive” category, butwould rather advertise for an “automotive books” sub-category.

Once an advertiser decides which keywords, categories, or other aspectsfor which to advertise, such as by using the advertising manager 212,the advertiser also has to decide how much the advertiser is willing tospend for that advertisement. In many major search engines, there can beseveral advertisers wishing to advertise for a given keyword,combination of keywords, or category, for example, and at least some ofthose advertisers are willing to pay a premium for being the mostprominently featured advertisement displayed for a given keyword orcombination of keywords. In some cases only one advertisement with alink will be displayed, while in other cases there can be a list or setof ads displayed, and an advertiser might pay extra to be displayedcloser to the top of a results page, etc. Many search engines and othersuch providers then allow these advertisers to bid for ad space, withthe winning bid being displayed most prominently, and lower bids beingdisplayed less prominently, if at all. An advertiser must then not onlydecide how much to bid for an advertisement based on projectedconversions or revenue for each advertisement, but also must considerthe placement of the advertisement on the result page and how much extrathe advertiser is willing to pay to be featured more prominently. Forexample, an advertiser bidding $0.03 per advertisement (e.g., based onnumber of displayed links or number of followed links, for example) thatis being featured third in a list of advertisers might be willing toadjust the bid price to $0.10 per advertisement to instead be featuredat the top of the list. While this obviously can cost the advertisermore advertising revenue, the number of extra users following the toplink might more than make up for the additional cost. Further, anadvertiser might make significantly more money from an advertisement atcertain times of the day, week, year, etc., and thus might be willing tospend differently at different times. An advertising manager 212 thusmay also be configured to analyze revenue, conversion rates, historicaldata, and other information that can be stored with the advertising data214 in order to determine an appropriate price to bid for each ad.

Various other aspects also can be taken into consideration. For example,if an advertiser spends a significant amount of money to be featuredwith a keyword, combination of keywords, or category, the advertiserwould like to display information in addition to the sponsored link thatis successful in getting users to want to follow the link. For example,an advertiser could display a generic message with each advertisement,such as the name and slogan of the advertiser, but that message might ingeneral be less effective than a message tailored to the content orkeyword(s). In the example where the user is searching for informationabout automobiles, a message such as “Buy the latest parts for yourautomobile at discount prices” might be substantially more effectivethan a generic message “Big Box Store—we offer everything under thesun”. An advertiser might also want to tailor the message even further,based on the category or keyword(s). For example, a user searching forinformation about an automobile that has not yet been placed into themarket, such as next year's new hybrid vehicle, might not be interestedin seeing a message about buying parts since the car is not yetavailable. It might be beneficial to instead display a message such as“Get the latest books and magazines about the next generation hybrids”.While more narrowly tailored ads can be significantly more successful,however, the number of possible keywords, keyword combinations,categories, and sub-categories is extremely large and there must be somedecisions made as to which categories, keywords, and keywordcombinations make financial sense to provide with tailoredadvertisements, and at what level in the subcategories does theadvantage of a further tailored message no longer make sense.

Once an advertisement has been placed and a user actually clicks on orotherwise selects a sponsored link, the user is directed to a landingpage specified by the advertiser through the advertising manager 212.Considering an example of an online marketplace that offers items inseveral different categories, a basic approach would simply direct theuser to the home page, welcome page, or other such introductory displayfor the marketplace. It can be more effective, however, to direct theuser to a page (herein referred to as a “landing page” as discussedabove) offering items or displaying information related to thekeyword(s) or category for which the advertiser decided to advertise andthe user was searching for information. In the example where a user wassearching for information about hybrid automobiles, an address for alanding page could be selected based on the landing page displayinginformation about automobiles, or more advantageously hybridautomobiles. Again, however, a decision can be made about the level thatmakes sense for each keyword, keyword combination, or category. Given amarketplace with thousands or even millions of items, and the fact thatthere can be millions of possible categories and keywords/combination ofkeywords, it can be desirable to have a system that automatically andaccurately selects landing pages and other options for those choicesthat make financial sense for an advertiser.

While some systems allow for a “generic” link that then can beredirected by the advertiser once the user follows the link and isdirected to a site of the advertiser, certain search engines and otherproviders monitor the landing pages associated with various links forpurposes of quality control, etc. A search engine provider may wish tobe know exactly where a user is being directed, as a user being directedto an inappropriate page or site can result in that user developing anunfavorable view of the search engine provider. As such, search engineproviders can issue quality scores or similar ratings for eachadvertiser based on the keyword-landing page pair, which can affect theadvertiser's ability to have advertisements displayed on the resultspages. Further, some search engine providers require a page to beapproved before the link is accepted, and a provider might be unwillingto accept a generic link because the provider has no control over wherethe user is going to finally be redirected. A provider also wants toavoid displaying broken links, etc.

Thus, it can be desirable to develop algorithms for selecting landingpages based upon a variety of factors for selecting an optimal landingpage at any given time. For example, if a first source has a highconversion rate for music items but a low conversion rate for clothingitems, then suggestions from that source will be more highly ranked formusic items than for clothing. If it is a current goal for a period oftime to push clothing items for that source, however, the clothingsuggestion from that source might be rated more highly. Another sourcemight perform better selling items in certain geographical regions, atcertain times of day, to certain demographics or age groups, etc. Onesource might be a major driver of revenue, and thus can be given ahigher priority, while in other cases a new source might be givenpriority for a period of time in order to help build business for thatsource. Each source also can be given a trust rating, such as may bebased on the number of conversions, complaints, etc., as well asperiodic tests to determine whether suggested landing pages actually areappropriate for the suggested keyword or keyword combination. Any of anumber of factors can be taken into consideration in order todynamically select an optimal landing page for any given keyword(s) orcategory. While it might seem desirable to select landing pages basedsimply on conversion rate or profit, for example, factors such asappropriateness and consumer confidence dictate that in the long run itcan be advantageous to provide the user with results that are of moreinterest for that particular user.

FIG. 3 illustrates a configuration of components 300 that can be used toselect an optimal landing page for a given keyword, combination orkeywords, or other content in accordance with one embodiment. As will bediscussed in more detail later herein, such a system can include anumber of processes, applications, modules, or other such componentswhich will collectively be referred to herein as “suggesters” 302. Eachsuggester can examine or “harvest” information from a data store 304 orother such source (e.g., server logs, flat files, databases, vendorreports, Web-based data services, etc.) containing any information thatcan be related to, or relevant for, various pages, such as may includepage content, production data, historical data, financial data, andother such information to suggest pages to be associated with a givenkeyword or keyword combination. The landing pages suggested by eachsuggester can be stored to a data store 306 or other appropriate storagelocation. These suggestions can be stored as keyword-landing page pairs,or as any other appropriate association. The system also can include aset of processes, applications, modules, services, or other suchcomponents which will collectively be referred to herein as “deciders”308. Each decider can include an algorithm or other decision process foranalyzing the suggested landing pages for each keyword/keywordcombination and making a decision as to the optimal landing page(s) forthat/those keyword(s) based on the respective algorithm. Each algorithmcan look to information in a data store 310, such as data relating toeach suggester, to select, score, and/or rank at least some of thesuggestions, with the ranked suggestions being referred to herein as“decisions.” For example, a decider that uses an algorithm that is basedat least in part on conversion rate might only analyze suggestions fromsuggesters that take conversion rate into account. The decider then canprocess those suggestions using the algorithm to make a selection forthe optimal landing page. The optimal keyword-landing page pairs fromeach decider then can be stored to a data store 312, the optimal resultfrom each decider being referred to herein as a “decided” pair. Asshould be understood, data stores discussed herein such as the datastore for storing the decided pairs can be part of any other data storediscussed with respect to this figure or a separate data store.

The system in this example includes a process, application, module, orother such component which will be referred to herein as a “metadecider”314. A metadecider 314 is configured to analyze data for each decider incombination with any of a number of algorithms, goals, or other suchfactors, to arbitrate between the decisions (e.g., ranked, keyword(s),landing page, score tuples) from the various deciders and select one ormore of the decisions as the optimal keyword-landing page pair at thegiven time. The metadecider can also perform other tasks, such as tofilter out decisions that are invalid, inappropriate, or otherwiseshould not be selected for any of a number of different reasons. Otherfiltering tasks can occur earlier in the process, such as where nosuggestions and/or decisions are to be made for keyword/keywordcombinations that are invalid or forbidden, whereby the keyword(s) canbe automatically culled from the list of things to be analyzed. Eachoptimal keyword-landing page pair can be stored to a table or data store316 for use in updating the keyword-landing page pairs on anyappropriate site, page, etc. As discussed in further detail below, sincean advertiser might want to limit the number of landing page changes atany time, a pair filter 318 or similar component can be used to controlthe number and/or selection of keyword-landing page pairs which areactually updated at any given time. As should be apparent, any of anumber of other components and/or configurations can be used as well invarious embodiments, as discussed elsewhere herein.

A configuration such as that described with respect to FIG. 3 can beused to perform various aspects relating to sponsored advertisements,suggested links, regular search results, and other such supplementalcontent. As discussed, each instance of such content in variousembodiments can include aspects such as a bid amount, a “creative”portion including text or other informative information to be providedto a user, an associated keyword or keyword combination, and informationspecifying a landing page or other location or address to be accessedupon an action of a user with respect to the content. Further, eachinstance (e.g., advertisement) of content might be provided to multipleproviders (e.g., different search engines), such that there can bedifferent aspects (e.g., different bid prices or creative elements) forthe same advertisement for different providers. A component such as ametadecider also can select the optimal landing page to be used for eachadvertisement for a keyword or combination of keywords (or otherselection element) on each provider.

One approach to selecting an optimal landing page for a keyword orcombination of keywords on a provider utilizes components such as thoseillustrated in FIG. 3, wherein multiple suggesters generate variouskeyword-landing page pairs, based on any of various factors such aslogs, RSS feeds, etc. A set of deciders (e.g., robots) selects from thesuggested pairs based on various criteria, such as purchases made as theresult of a search. Each decider has its own criteria or approach forselecting keyword-landing page pairs, and can generate a list of bestcandidates for landing pages for particular keywords based on thosecriteria. The metadecider then can utilize the suggestions from one ormore of these deciders. In some instances, a metadecider considers onlythe top decision of each decider, and uses a static (e.g., hierarchical)ranking of the deciders to determine which landing page(s) to assign toa keyword or combination of keywords. For example, a suggestion from theoldest or best performing decider is selected if available, and if notthen a suggestion from the next oldest or next best performing decideris selected. The tree of deciders is analyzed until a suggestion for thekeyword-landing page pair exists. Using such an approach, however, theinitial assumptions about effectiveness of each decider to choose themost appropriate landing page are not tested and re-evaluated.

Such a process is not optimal in all cases, however, as a decider withan excellent overall performance across a number of categories mightactually perform very poorly in specific categories. For example, adecider that is optimal for high value items might perform very poorlyfor low value items, where factors such as profit margin may be factoredinto the decision. Even if a decider can be selected that is optimal forany given category, many keywords/keyword combinations apply to multiplecategories, such that simply selecting a decider based on one of thecategories might also not produce an optimal result.

Systems and methods in accordance with various embodiments can addressat least some of these and other issues with selecting optimalkeyword-landing page pairs by taking into consideration the performanceor “reputation” of various deciders with respect to at least some of thecategories that are determined to apply to a specified keyword orcombination of keywords. For example, a keyword/keyword combinationmight be determined to correspond to results that are in a specific setof categories a specific percentage of the time. A keyword/keywordcombination might be determined to correspond to a DVD category 40% ofthe time, a books category 30% of the time, apparel 20% of the time, andin various other categories 10% of the time. The threshold used todetermine whether to consider a category separately can vary, and can beconfigurable, but can be set to any appropriate value, such as at least5% or at least 10%. A metadecider component can then utilize one or morealgorithms to determine performance or “reputation” of the variousdeciders in each of these categories, in order to generate a relativeperformance ranking of the deciders with respect to the categorydistribution for a particular keyword.

FIG. 4A shows an illustrative example of a search engine interface, inaccordance with an embodiment. In the embodiment shown, a consumer haspreviously submitted a search query consisting of the words “Acme 125XNotebook Computer,” and a search engine has provided results based atleast in part upon that query in a search page 400. As shown in theexample, the search page 400 may include various components; forexample, on the right hand side appear advertisements 402 which may havebeen selected for presentation to the consumer based upon the searchquery entered. Likewise, in the lower left corner, appears anadvertisement 404 which may be relevant to the search query entered bythe consumer. It should be noted that advertisements or other content ona search page, may or may not be relevant to a search query entered bythe user and that the figure shows that advertisements shown are merelyillustrative examples.

In this particular example, the first three results of a set of searchresults determined by a search engine are shown prominently in thecenter of the page although they may be shown in another location.Additional search results may be viewed in various ways, such as byscrolling down to a lower portion of the page 400 and/or by selectingadditional pages of search results. In the example shown, the firstresult shows a link which appears to lead to a home page of the AcmeComputer Company, that is, a page directed generally to the company, butnot necessarily specifically dedicated to any particular productsproduced by the company. The second result shows a link to a webpage ofan entity entitled “Computer Depot Warehouse” which sells Acme brandcomputers. The third result shown shows a link to a webpage dedicated tothe particular model Acme Notebook Computer whose model number matchesterms entered in the search query. Thus, a consumer to whom the searchresults are presented may select the third search result in order toreceive more information about, and/or to purchase, the notebookcomputer. While the search results are shown in an ordered list, theparticular search results shown are for the purposes of illustration andsearch results responsive to a query may appear in any format that maynot include a list and which may be determined by a search engine, anddifferent search engines may provide different search results withdifferent formats.

FIG. 4B shows an illustrative example of a landing page 406 for thethird search result shown in FIG. 4A, in accordance with an embodiment.The landing page 406 may also be a landing page in other circumstancesas well and not necessarily the landing page of a search result. Forinstance, the landing page 400 may be a landing page for a “sponsoredlink” or other advertisement shown along with content which may besearch results, articles, and/or other content. Generally the landingpage 406 may be any page to which a user navigates from another page orother content. The landing page 406 may be a landing page for anyselectable interface element provided to a consumer and with which theconsumer may interact in order to navigate to the landing page 400.

As with the page 400 shown in FIG. 4A, the page 406 shown in FIG. 4Bincludes several components which are shown for the purposes ofillustration. As an example, the landing page 406 includesadvertisements 408 and an advertisement 410. Prominently displayed inthe center of the page 406 are details regarding an Acme 125X notebookcomputer which is presented so that the consumer may view information,and if so inclined, place an order for the computer through an onlinemarketplace operated in connection with the page 406.

In an embodiment, the landing page 406 includes an additional contentssection 412 which in an embodiment is a portion the landing page 406. Asshown, the additional contents section 412 is located proximally to afocal area of the landing page 406, where the focal area of the landingpage includes content corresponding to the landing page. For instance,landing page 406 shown as an example in the drawings includes a centralarea dedicated to information about an ACME 125X computer as a focalarea. In this example shown, the additional contents section 412 is arectangular area of the page 406 located proximal to and above thiscentral area of the page 406 dedicated to the notebook computerassociated with the third search result of FIG. 4A. In this manner,because the additional contents section 412 is near the focus of theconsumer's attention, the consumer can see additional items related tothe landing page without having to navigate in or away from the landingpage. While the example in FIG. 4B shows the focal area of the landingpage 406 centrally located, the focal area may be in other places on alanding page or on another page presented in connection with a landingpage. However, it should be noted that the additional contents section412 may be in another section of the page 406 such as along the side, onthe bottom or in another location. Additionally, the initial contentsection 412 may not occupy any of the page 406 but may be presented inalternate ways. For example, the additional contents section 412 may bepresented as superimposed upon the page 406 such that a consumer mayselect the additional content section 412 in order to make the sectionmore prominent or may cause the additional content section 412 to beremoved. The additional contents section 412 may also be a separatepage, such as a pop-up page that appears when the consumer navigates tothe page 400. The additional contents section may include audio, video,text, and/or features, which may be interactive.

In the embodiment shown, the additional contents section 412 includesinformation from search results relevant to the query the consumerentered on the page 400 of FIG. 4A. The search results shown in FIG. 4B,that are presented in the additional contents section 412, may be fromthe same search engine that processed the search query and presentedresults in connection with the page 400 of FIG. 4A or may be from adifferent search engine or may be advertisements from another system,such as a system that generates a plurality of landing pages forkeywords, such as a system incorporating one or more components of FIG.3. The search results may be generated dynamically or may be retrievedfrom a data store. In an embodiment, the search results shown in theadditional contents section 412 of FIG. 4B, are from a product searchengine where a product search engine provides search results dedicatedto consumer products. Further, in an embodiment, the search engine usedto provide search results for the additional contents section 412 isdedicated to provide results related to items for consumption (such asconsumer products), which may be offered by an entity operating awebsite that includes the page 406. In this manner, if the consumer wasnot searching for the particular model of computer shown prominently inthe center of the page 406, additional items which may be relevant tothe consumer are displayed to the consumer such that the consumer mayeasily locate the items, select the items in order to receive moreinformation and/or purchase or otherwise consume the items.

As shown in the drawing, additional features may be provided on the page406. For instance, as shown in the drawing, the additional contentsection 412 may include one or more navigational arrows or otherelements such that, a user may select one of the navigational arrows inorder to view additional search results that are not currently displayedin the additional content section 412. As another example, as shown inthe drawing, an interface element for viewing all the search results maybe provided in connection with the additional content section 412. Inthe example of FIG. 4B, a user may select the text “see all results” andthe user may navigate to a page that more prominently displays searchresults identified for the additional content section. In this manner, auser may view a set of relevant search results in order to obtain moreinformation about and/or consume one or more items for consumptionassociated with the search results. Other features, such as “relatedsearches” that provide search results in connection with alternatesearch queries that may be more relevant, may be included as well.

FIG. 5 shows a method 500 for providing content in accordance with anembodiment. For example, the method 500 may be used in order to providethe page 406 shown in FIG. 4B or generally to provide any page producedin accordance with the present disclosure. The method shown in FIG. 5(and/or any method, combinations of methods, or variation thereof) maybe performed under the control of one or more computer systems that areconfigured with executable instructions, which may be embodied on acomputer-readable storage medium. Generally, the method 500 proceeds byreceiving a request for content and determining what additional content,if any, to include with a response to the request. In an embodiment at arequest receipt step 502, a request to access content is received. Therequest to access content may be received in a variety of ways. Forexample, continuing with the illustrative examples of FIGS. 4A and 4B, arequest to access content may be received from a consumer computingdevice, such as a personal or notebook computer, personal digitalassistant (PDA), mobile phone, electronic book reader, and the like,when a consumer selects a link or other element causing navigation to alanding page, such as the third search result shown in FIG. 4A. However,the request may be received in various other ways for example, a requestmay be received from a computer that enters an electronic address of alanding page into an address bar of an internet browser. In anotherembodiment, the request to receive content is generated automaticallybased upon consumer browsing activity.

At a content module selection step 504, a selection of an additionalcontent module is made, where an additional content module comprises aset of executable instructions for providing content additional to thecontent requested in a specified manner, such as in the additionalcontent section 412 shown in FIG. 4B. As an another example, anadditional content module may include instructions for displayingalternate search queries and/or for displaying alternate items forconsumption, which may be based at least in part on browsing activity ofother consumers. In the illustrative example of FIG. 4B, upon receivingthe request to access the landing page 406 at a location specified in ahyperlink of the third search result of FIG. 4A, a web server receivingthe request may determine whether to include the additional contentsection 412 or to include other content such as advertisements or suchas third party advertisements or other content. Alternatively, in someinstances, a determination to not include an additional content modulemay be made. For instance, search results may be identified forinclusion as additional content and a determination whether to includethe search results may be made based on characteristics of theidentified results. For example, if the number of identified searchresults do not exceed a minimum threshold, which may be predetermined orwhich may depend on the dimensions of the area in which additionalcontent may be displayed, the identified search results may not beincluded as additional content. As another example, one or morealgorithms may be used to decide whether to include search results asadditional content. If search results are categorized into categories,then search results may be provided as additional content only ininstances when certain criteria are met with regards to the number ofsearch results belonging to a single category. In this manner, searchresults that are more likely to be relevant to the user may be providedas additional content. Other algorithms may be used in addition or as analternative.

At a rendering step 506, a page is rendered that includes requestedcontent and the additional content. For instance, looking to theillustrative example of FIG. 4B, the page 406 has been rendered toinclude content relating to the Acme 125X Notebook Computer in thecenter of the page as well as the additional content section 412. Asdiscussed, the page may be rendered in various ways. In an embodiment,rendering the page includes creating an HTML or other electronicdocument that provides instructions to a browser executing on a consumercomputing device for displaying the content and additional content.

At a display step 508, the page having the content and the additionalcontent is caused to be displayed to the user. In an embodiment, theinstructions for displaying the page, which may be encoded in an HTMLdocument, are sent over a communications network such as the Internet toa computing device utilized by the consumer. The instructions mayinclude text, pictures and/or video or may include instructions fordisplaying content locally stored on the device of the consumer.

FIG. 6 shows a method 600 for identifying additional content inaccordance with an embodiment. The method 600 may be used, for example,to provide search results in the additional content section 412 of FIG.4B and may be performed in order to identify additional content whileperforming the method described in connection with FIG. 5, or variationsthereof. Generally, in an embodiment, the method 600 proceeds by usinginformation about a consumer's preceding browsing history in order toselect potential additional content, where the browsing history mayinclude information about one or more search queries submitted by theconsumer and/or on the consumer's behalf. A search query may be derivedfrom the information. Additional content for display, in an embodiment,is then selected from the potential additional content. In anembodiment, at a referral information identification step 602 a referralinformation is identified. In an embodiment, referral information is orincludes a URL of a page from which a consumer selected a link in orderto navigate to the landing page. Alternatively or in addition, referralinformation may include other information such as any information fromor about the page from which a consumer navigated to a landing page,information regarding browsing history of the consumer and/or otherinformation.

Various techniques may be used to obtain the referral information. In anembodiment, an HTTP_REFERER variable (or analogous variable) in ahypertext preprocessor (PHP), Active Server Pages (ASP), or other scriptis used to identify the URL from which a consumer navigated to thelanding page, although other techniques may be used. As another example,an operator of a referring page may send referral information directlyto an operator of the landing page, such as in response to a requestfrom the operator of the landing page, or in response to a userselecting a sponsored link or other advertisement. A request from theoperator may include information identifying a consumer to enable theoperator of the referring page to retrieve information about theconsumer, such as from a server log, and send the information to theoperator of the landing page.

At a potential additional content identification step 604 potentialadditional content is identified based at least in part on the referralinformation. In an embodiment, identifying additional content includessubmitting a search query based at least in part on information from areferring page, such as one or more keywords entered by the consumer asa search query from a page previously visited by the consumer. In thisexample, potential additional content may include search resultsreturned by a search engine executing the search query. Identifyingadditional content may include requesting and/or receiving landing pagesrelated to the referral from a system such as a system similar to theone discussed in connection with FIG. 3.

At an additional content identification step 606, in an embodiment,additional content is identified from the potential additional content.Identification of the additional content may be performed in variousways. For example, in an embodiment where the potential additionalcontent includes search results, identification of the additionalcontent may include identifying a subset of the search results. Variouscriteria may be used in order to identify additional content. Using thesearch results example, the top search results as determined from aranking of the search results may be selected. The number of top searchresults may depend on the amount of space available for additionalcontent. In addition, certain results may be excluded such as, forexample, if the landing page is dedicated to an item for consumption,that item for consumption may be excluded from search results in orderto avoid providing a consumer an option to navigate to the same pagealready displayed. In addition, popularity values related to searchresults may also be used as may be any method of selecting a subset ofsearch results, where the popularity values may be associated with itemsfor consumption corresponding to the search results. Generally, anysuitable set of rules may be applied to the potential additional contentin order to identify the additional content. Further, while the method600 shows two separate steps, the additional content may be identifieddirectly without first identifying potential additional content. Also,identifying potential additional content and additional content may beperformed as one single step. As an example, in an embodiment, a webservice may be used to respond to requests for additional content, whichmay be from a web server. In response to a request, the web service mayprovide additional content for initial display as well as otherpotential additional content which may be displayed based at least inpart on consumer browsing activity.

FIG. 7 shows a method 700 of identifying additional content which may beused for example as the potential additional content identification step604 and the additional content identification step 606 shown inconnection with FIG. 6, in accordance with an embodiment, although themethod may be used in other instances. In an embodiment, keywords areidentified from referral information at a referral informationidentification step 702. While the present disclosure speaks ofidentifying keywords, it should be understood that at times a singlekeyword may be identified, such as when a user submits a search queryconsisting of a single word. As an example of identifying keywords, manysearch engines use URLs to encode submitted search terms. Google Inc.,for example, encodes a search for speaker cables in a URL that includesthe following:

google.com/search?q=speaker+cables&rls=com.microsoft:en-us:IE-SearchBox&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&sourceid=ie7&rlz=1I7DKUSSpecifically, the search terms appear between “q=” and an ampersandimmediately following “cables” and are separated by a plus sign. Otherinformation relating to a computing environment used by the consumerfollows the ampersand. Thus, a computer system, such as a web server,may be programmed to, upon detection of the domain “google.com,” locatethe content between “q=” and the next ampersand. The computer system mayadditionally be programmed to locate other information in a searchquery, such as quotation marks, plus signs, minus signs, and otherinformation input by the consumer in order to direct how the search isperformed in accordance with a particular search engine. The computinglogic used to extract the search terms and grammar to direct how asearch should be performed, as discussed, may be different for differentreferring websites. Accordingly, in an embodiment, if the referralinformation includes a URL of a search engine that includes search termsin the URL, the keywords from the URL are be extracted. Identifying thereferral information may include identifying a domain of a referringpage and applying a set of rules applicable to the domain to a referringURL in order to extract the keywords.

As discussed, identifying keywords from the referral information mayinclude identifying a search query that has been submitted by a user oris otherwise associated with content viewed by the user. Identifying thekeywords may include identifying a search query (such as a search querysubmitted by the user) and modifying the search query according to a setof rules. For example, certain words (such as words that may result intoo many dissimilar search results) may be disregarded. As anotherexample, the syntax of a search query may be modified for use in asearch engine different from that to which the search query waspreviously submitted. For instance, the word “AND” may be added to asearch query for use in a search engine that, unless otherwise directed,searches for any (but not necessarily all) of the keywords in a searchquery. Likewise, terms may be deleted, and punctuation may be deletedand/or modified. As yet another example, identifying a search query mayinclude specifying parameters for the search query. For instance, ifitems for consumption are categorized into categories, and a requestedlanding page corresponds to an item for consumption in a particularcategory, a parameter for the search query may specify that results forthe search query should be from the particular category or from arelated category, such as from a parent category in a hierarchicalcategorization scheme. Thus, in an embodiment, if a requested landingpage corresponds to a book for sale, a parameter may be specified forthe search query that specifies that results should include only books.A search engine dedicated to books may be utilized to locate informationcorresponding to other books or a more general search engine, as may abook index of a more general search engine or a query may be modified toindicate that results should be limited to books. Similarly, if arequested landing page corresponds to a portable music player, aparameter for the search query may specify that results should beportable music players, electronics, and/or accessories for portablemusic players. Generally, any parameters may be specified for the searchquery and the parameters may be set according to the search engine orengines being used to locate information additional content.

At a keyword submission step 704, the identified keywords are submittedas a search query to a search engine in accordance with an embodiment.As discussed, the keywords may be submitted to a search engine dedicatedto items for consumption offered by or on behalf of an entity operatinga website which includes the landing page. Other variations are alsopossible. For instance, if a referring page is associated with a searchengine, the keywords may be submitted to the same search engine withadditional keywords and/or conditions. As an example, if the landingpage is xyz.com, the keywords may be submitted to the search engine withthe condition that search results be limited to pages associated withxyz.com, such as by including “site:xyz.com” in a query at google.com,or that the search results be limited to search results of a specifictype or types, such as search results dedicated to items forconsumption, images, video, and/or other categories of search results.In another embodiment, identified keywords may be submitted to one ormore search engines to locate items for consumption by other entities.In this example, an operator of the landing page may offer others' itemsfor consumption and generate revenue through commissions or othermethods. Generally, the keyword submission step 704 may includesubmission to any suitable search engine with or without conditions forhow the search engine should process the keywords.

At a search result selection step 706, in an embodiment, a set of searchresults is selected in accordance with an embodiment. For example, theset of searches returned by the search engine or a subset thereof may beselected. If not all the search results are selected, a certain numberselected from the top of a ranking of the search results may be selectedand/or one or more criteria may be used in order to determine whichsearch results are selected. For instance, in an embodiment where thesearch engine provides search results corresponding to items forconsumption, only search results corresponding to items for consumptionthat are available may be selected. If the landing page corresponds toan item for consumption, then a search result dedicated to the same itemfor consumption may be excluded, as may different versions of the item,such as items that only vary in color or some other characteristic.Criteria may also relate to sales data, popularity of correspondingitems for consumption, compatibility with an item for consumptioncorresponding to the landing page, and others, and may be used to rankthe selected search results and/or a set of potential search resultsfrom which the selected search results are selected. Further, in anembodiment, items for consumption are organized into categories and onlysearch results corresponding to items in the same category as an itemcorresponding to the landing page. If the categories are hierarchicallyorganized, then only search results corresponding to items in the samecategory or a sub-category of the item for consumption corresponding tothe landing page may be provided. For example, if the landing page isdedicated to a particular portable music player, search results may belimited to portable music players, or sub-categories of portable musicplayers, such as accessories for portable music players.

In an embodiment, at a subset selection step 708, a subset of the set ofsearch results is identified. Identifying the subset may include aparticular number of the selected search results based at least in parton a ranking of the search results, where the ranking may be provided bythe search engine that provided the results. The number of searchresults selected for the subset may be based at least in part on thespace available to display the search results, such as the size of anadditional content section, as described above. Further, one or morecriteria may be used in order to select the subset, such as any of thecriteria described above. In addition, any criteria used for excludingor ranking search results may be applied during the search resultsselection step 706, during the subset selection step 708, or both.

At a content identification step 710, in an embodiment, content from thesubset of search results is identified. Identifying content may includeidentifying information for display in an additional content section,such as described above. For instance, if the search results correspondto items for consumption, information from a data record associated witheach item for consumption, such as a picture of the item and an itemname for the item, may be identified. Other content may be identified aswell. For example, additional content that is not initially displayedmay be identified for display upon one or more specified consumeractions, such as selection of an associated search result, a mouseoverwith respect to an associated search result, and the like.

One or more additional steps may be taken in addition to or instead ofsteps discussed in connection with the methods described above. Forexample, information may be identified for inclusion in an additionalcontent section instead of or in addition to the additional contentdescribed above, such as search results. For example, in an embodiment,information independent of a search query submitted by a consumer orotherwise associated with content accessed by a consumer may beidentified and included in addition to or instead of additional contentdiscussed above, such as search results. As an example, an organizationproviding a landing page may include information corresponding to itemsfor consumption that are independent of items of consumption identifiedthrough execution of a search query associated with consumer-accessedcontent. The information may correspond, for instance, to items theentity has determined to market specifically to the consumer, or toconsumers in general. The information may correspond to items previouslyviewed by the consumer, items placed by the consumer on a publiclyaccessible (such as through a website) list of items for consumptiondesired by the consumer, items on such a publicly accessible list ofitems desired by others, such as by people associated with or determinedto be associated with the consumer, items commonly placed on such a listby a group of consumers, and the like. Other examples of informationthat may be included in an additional contents section may includeinformation about items for consumption that have been consumed by otherconsumers who have submitted the same or similar search queries and/orwho have requested the same landing page. Generally, any process fordetermining additional content in addition to the additional contentdiscussed in the preceding paragraphs may be used. Additionally,determining additional content may include identifying the consumer thatrequested the landing page, such as from a cookie sent by a browser of acomputing device of the consumer or other mechanism, and utilizinginformation specific to the consumer. Thus, in the example of additionalcontent including information associated with a publicly accessible listcreated by the consumer, the list may be identified based at least inpart on the identity of the consumer.

As discussed above, the various embodiments can be implemented in a widevariety of operating environments, which in some cases can include oneor more user computers, computing devices, or processing devices whichcan be used to operate any of a number of applications. User or clientdevices can include any of a number of general purpose personalcomputers, such as desktop or laptop computers running a standardoperating system, as well as cellular, wireless, and handheld devicesrunning mobile software and capable of supporting a number of networkingand messaging protocols. Such a system also can include a number ofworkstations running any of a variety of commercially availableoperating systems and other known applications for purposes such asdevelopment and database management. These devices also can includeother electronic devices, such as dummy terminals, thin-clients, gamingsystems, and other devices capable of communicating via a network.

Various aspects also can be implemented as part of at least one serviceor Web service, such as may be part of a service-oriented architecture.Services such as Web services can communicate using any appropriate typeof messaging, such as by using messages in extensible markup language(XML) format and exchanged using an appropriate protocol such as SOAP(derived from the “Simple Object Access Protocol”). Processes providedor executed by such services can be written in any appropriate language,such as the Web Services Description Language (WSDL). Using a languagesuch as WSDL allows for functionality such as the automated generationof client-side code in various SOAP frameworks.

Most embodiments utilize at least one network that would be familiar tothose skilled in the art for supporting communications using any of avariety of commercially available protocols, such as TCP/IP, OSI, FTP,UPnP, NFS, CIFS, and AppleTalk. The network can be, for example, a localarea network, a wide-area network, a virtual private network, theInternet, an intranet, an extranet, a public switched telephone network,an infrared network, a wireless network, and any combination thereof.

In embodiments utilizing a Web server, the Web server can run any of avariety of server or mid-tier applications, including HTTP servers, FTPservers, CGI servers, data servers, Java servers, and businessapplication servers. The server(s) also may be capable of executingprograms or scripts in response requests from user devices, such as byexecuting one or more Web applications that may be implemented as one ormore scripts or programs written in any programming language, such asJava®, C, C# or C++, or any scripting language, such as Perl, Python, orTCL, as well as combinations thereof. The server(s) may also includedatabase servers, including without limitation those commerciallyavailable from Oracle®, Microsoft®, Sybase®, and IBM®.

The environment can include a variety of data stores and other memoryand storage media as discussed above. These can reside in a variety oflocations, such as on a storage medium local to (and/or resident in) oneor more of the computers or remote from any or all of the computersacross the network. In a particular set of embodiments, the informationmay reside in a storage-area network (“SAN”) familiar to those skilledin the art. Similarly, any necessary files for performing the functionsattributed to the computers, servers, or other network devices may bestored locally and/or remotely, as appropriate. Where a system includescomputerized devices, each such device can include hardware elementsthat may be electrically coupled via a bus, the elements including, forexample, at least one central processing unit (CPU), at least one inputdevice (e.g., a mouse, keyboard, controller, touch screen, or keypad),and at least one output device (e.g., a display device, printer, orspeaker). Such a system may also include one or more storage devices,such as disk drives, optical storage devices, and solid-state storagedevices such as random access memory (“RAM”) or read-only memory(“ROM”), as well as removable media devices, memory cards, flash cards,etc.

Such devices also can include a computer-readable storage media reader,a communications device (e.g., a modem, a network card (wireless orwired), an infrared communication device, etc.), and working memory asdescribed above. The computer-readable storage media reader can beconnected with, or be configured to receive, a computer-readable storagemedium, representing remote, local, fixed, and/or removable storagedevices as well as storage media for temporarily and/or more permanentlycontaining, storing, transmitting, and retrieving computer-readableinformation. The system and various devices also typically will includea number of software applications, modules, services, or other elementslocated within at least one working memory device, including anoperating system and application programs, such as a client applicationor Web browser. It should be appreciated that alternate embodiments mayhave numerous variations from that described above. For example,customized hardware might also be used and/or particular elements mightbe implemented in hardware, software (including portable software, suchas applets), or both. Further, connection to other computing devicessuch as network input/output devices may be employed.

Storage media and computer-readable media for containing code, orportions of code, can include any appropriate media known or used in theart, including storage media and communication media, such as but notlimited to volatile and non-volatile, removable and non-removable mediaimplemented in any method or technology for storage and/or transmissionof information such as computer-readable instructions, data structures,program modules, or other data, including RAM, ROM, EEPROM, flash memoryor other memory technology, CD-ROM, digital versatile disk (DVD) orother optical storage, magnetic cassettes, magnetic tape, magnetic diskstorage or other magnetic storage devices, or any other medium which canbe used to store the desired information and which can be accessed by asystem device. Based at least in part on the disclosure and teachingsprovided herein, a person of ordinary skill in the art will appreciateother ways and/or methods to implement the various embodiments.

The specification and drawings are, accordingly, to be regarded in anillustrative rather than a restrictive sense. It will, however, beevident that various modifications and changes may be made thereuntowithout departing from the broader spirit and scope of the invention asset forth in the claims.

What is claimed is:
 1. A computer-implemented method for providing content, comprising: under the control of one or more computer systems configured with executable instructions, receiving a user-initiated request to access a landing page, said request received as a result of the user having selected an element of result page displaying a first set of search results for a search query submitted by the user to a search engine, the element comprising a hyperlink to the landing page; obtaining from the request a referrer URL identifying a results page source and including the search query; executing the search query in another search engine to identify a second set of search results corresponding to the search query; creating display instructions for displaying the landing page such that the landing page, when displayed according to the display instructions, includes information corresponding to at least a subset of the second set of search results; and causing the landing page to be displayed to the user according to the display instructions. 